Film Society of Lincoln Center to Honor Satyajit Ray

Stacey Yount

The Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York is honoring Satyajit Ray, one of India’s greatest filmmakers, with a film retrospective titled First Light: Satyajit Ray from the Apu Trilogy to the Calcutta Trilogy. The series will run over 16 days starting April 15th, and over 20 of the master director’s works will be shown, some restored in new 35mm prints.

Ray, who was honored with an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement in 1991 “for his rare mastery of the art of motion pictures and for his profound humanitarian outlook, which has had an indelible influence on filmmakers and audiences throughout the world” was born in Calcutta in 1921. In 1955, the director made his first film, Pather Panchali, and went on to create work every year from 1956 until 1981 that garnered outstanding praise. Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa said about his work, “To have not seen the films of Ray is to have lived in the world without ever having seen the moon and the sun.”